February 22, 2021
A Durong youngster is making a big splash in the world of fundraising after hearing about a toddler diagnosed with leukaemia.
Harry Allsop, 13, is in Year 8 at Dalby Christian College.
Just before Christmas he found out that the four-year-old son of a family friend had been diagnosed with leukaemia.
Harry’s mum, Jamie, said her son was quite upset and became determined to try to help in some way.
Then he learned the Starlight Children’s Foundation – which supports sick children – had launched a swimming challenge.
“Because he’s okay at swimming, Harry thought this is something I can do,” Jamie said.
The Super Swim challenge was to swim 32km in 30 days.
So far Harry has swum an amazing 40km and has raised $2085 for the children’s charity, putting him in the top 100 of Super Swim fundraisers across Australia.
Harry has been doing laps of both the outside (50m) and inside (25m) pools at Dalby to clock up his kilometres, fitting it them in between schoolwork and other commitments.
“He tries to do at least one kilometre every day, but one weekend did six kilometres before breakfast!” Jamie said.
“The next Saturday, he did seven kilometres before lunch.”
To put that into context: seven kilometres is 280 laps of a 25m pool …
“He just kept on doing laps,” Jamie said. “He was quite tired afterwards.”
Harry’s original goal was to raise $500, which he has easily surpassed but he’s hoping to raise even more dollars – and do more laps – before the challenge ends on Wednesday.
He has never done anything like this before, which makes his determination even more remarkable.
He’s being mostly doing freestyle but has also included laps of butterfly to help break up the boredom.
And the message from Harry on his fundraising page? “Eat my bubbles leukaemia!”
- To support Harry in his swim challenge, visit his Super Swim page
Well done young Harry. Your determined effort and the kindness of your sponsors will brighten the days of over 50 sick children and their families.